One of Dickie’s expat acquaintances, Freddie is an “overweight American [with] carrot-red hair” who is “the son of an American hotel-chain owner” and a “self-styled playwright.” Freddie’s extravagant manner and off-putting looks make him hateful to Tom, though his love of revelry and excess is what draws Dickie and Marge to him. Freddie inadvertently drives a wedge between Tom and Dickie through his plans for a “bang-up” ski trip to Cortina, from which Tom is excluded. After Tom murders Dickie and moves to Rome in order to overtake his identity, Freddie tracks “Dickie” down. When Freddie begins to piece together the truth of the situation, Tom murders him. Freddie’s murder then becomes a popular news item in the Italian and European press, and the unending, high-profile coverage is what eventually forces Tom to abandon his life as Dickie and return to his own identity.
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Frederick “Freddie” Miles Character Timeline in The Talented Mr. Ripley
The timeline below shows where the character Frederick “Freddie” Miles appears in The Talented Mr. Ripley. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9
...they run into another American, a redhead in a “loud sports shirt.” His name is Freddie Miles, and Tom thinks he is “hideous.” Freddie invites Dickie to a skiing trip in...
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Chapter 14
...next day Tom moves hotels. In his new room, he holds “imaginary conversations” with Fausto, Freddie, and Marge—practicing his imitation of Dickie, in case any one of them calls him on...
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...himself.” As he leaves the party, he realizes it has been over a month since Freddie Miles’s party at Cortina passed by, and he forgot to write to decline Freddie’s invitation....
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Chapter 15
...Spain and Sicily, there comes a knock at Tom’s door. He answers it to find Freddie Miles in the hall. Tom quickly slips off Dickie’s rings, greeting Freddie and telling him...
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Tom listens as Freddie descends the stairs, and he hears Freddie run into Signora Buffi, who insists that only...
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After using a towel to soak up the blood and searching Freddie’s pockets to find car keys and a wallet, Tom concocts a plan to make the...
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Chapter 16
After dark, in a “precisely calculated state of intoxication,” Tom drags Freddie down to his car. A man asks in Italian if everything is all right, but...
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Chapter 17
The next morning, Tom, hungover, searches the papers for anything about Freddie’s death, but there is nothing. He prepares to leave on his trip to Spain, but...
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...to stay at a hotel, and he goes to one called the Inghilterra. At noon, Freddie’s murder is in all the papers. Tom remains in the hotel until dinnertime, when he...
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...his identity as Tom. Dickie will then be a suspect in not one but two murders—Freddie’s and Tom’s. Tom returns to his room, after finding out that he’s missed a call...
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...to Dickie’s parents, in order to try to “set their minds at rest about the Freddie affair,” but he is unable to concentrate, and gives up.
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Chapter 21
...town, Trento, and buys a car. There is nothing in the papers about Tom Ripley, Freddie Miles, or the discovery of the boat in San Remo. He marks up a guidebook...
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Chapter 22
...and Tom tells him that Dickie is “not very cooperative,” but couldn’t possibly have murdered Freddie Miles. The tenente asks about Marge, and Tom implies that both Dickie and Freddie were...
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Chapter 25
...a coffee and read the papers. It is a rare morning; nothing about Dickie or Freddie’s murder is in the papers at all. Marge and Tom go to the station to...
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...Herbert that, the last time he saw Dickie, he’d been morose and “shaken” by “the Miles thing.” Herbert insists that Dickie has not committed suicide, and Tom indulges him, telling Herbert...
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Chapter 27
...when Dickie gave them to him. Tom replies, “a few days after the murder of Freddie Miles.” Tom insists that, because Dickie lent him “certain things” in the past, he didn’t...
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...to elaborate on Dickie’s relationship with Marge, and whether or not he believes Dickie killed Freddie Miles. McCarron tells Tom that he plans to return to Rome today, and the two...
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